


When Uzumaki Kushina Changed the World

by purpleSquiggles



Series: How a Little Respect and Care Changed the World [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Completely Kushina's POV, F/M, How Do I Tag, Kushina is a badass and you cannot convince me otherwise, Pre-Relationship, Written in an experimental style the author has not used before!, do not copy to another site, how exciting right?, this fic directly parallels the first of this series, until it's not
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-18
Updated: 2020-08-18
Packaged: 2021-03-06 11:55:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25969285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/purpleSquiggles/pseuds/purpleSquiggles
Summary: She did it with purpose, and there was no power in heaven or earth who could stop her.
Relationships: Kyuubi | Nine-tails | Kurama & Uzumaki Kushina, Namikaze Minato & Uzumaki Kushina, Namikaze Minato/Uzumaki Kushina
Series: How a Little Respect and Care Changed the World [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1883431
Comments: 10
Kudos: 45





	When Uzumaki Kushina Changed the World

**Author's Note:**

> Hello again all! It is once again thirty minutes past the witching hour as I post this, because according to both Kushina and my brain that is the only appropriate time for any fic to be posted by me specifically.
> 
> This is the last 'prequel' fic in this series, as well as the last (planned) experimental writing style fic for this series! Again, if there are any tags you feel I've forgotten (because I'm sure there are), please let me know in a comment!
> 
> Enjoy

When Uzumaki Kushina was twelve, she was furious at everything and hated the world. She had been forced to move to Konoha  _ and _ to be the jinchuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune  _ and _ live with strangers who weren’t anything like her clan back at home. She had been forced to go to the lame ninja school where she knew no one,  _ knew _ no one else had chakra reserves as big she did, and everyone already had their own stupid friend groups that she wanted no part in.

She decided she was going to be better than them all and become Hokage.

There was one boy with a sneaky smile and pretty yellow hair who said he wanted to be Hokage too.

She was going to smash that kid into the dirt if it killed her.

* * *

When Uzumaki Kushina was thirteen, she found herself frequently confronted by random kids and their siblings who liked to pick on her and usually make fun of her hair- which she  _ knew _ was ugly. They didn’t have to say it! But she couldn’t let them win, so she fought.

She fought hard and dirty—although she liked to call it fighting  _ smart _ —and tried to make sure they wouldn’t come back. Or at least stay away for a while.

She spotted that yellow-haired kid her age watching from a tree once or twice and gave him a piece of her mind for spying on her and hoping that she would get beat up for once. When she’d calmed down enough to think rationally again afterwards, she would find herself feeling guilty for yelling at him. Looking back, he seemed like he wasn’t there to be mean and he clearly wanted to say something but was probably too scared after she’d screamed at him.

Kushina sometimes wished she wasn’t so angry all of the time and wasn’t such a monster.

* * *

When Uzumaki Kushina was  _ still _ thirteen, she came home and found her retainers murdered. Moments later, after a brief scuffle, she was knocked out and kidnapped. Just being a monster seemingly wasn’t enough to fight off people twice her age. In a moment of drowning despair, she decided to leave a trail of her hair as they took her further and further away. She tried to make herself feel a little better with the action as if maybe someone would actually worry about her and find her because she did something smart and clever.

Only then someone did, and he  _ tore _ through the ninja twice her age as if he were the embodiment of a kunai, cold and sharp and  _ angry _ . She only realised it was the blond kid her age when he slowed down enough to very gently pick her up, like maybe she was something precious, and make sure that she was okay.

She learnt his name was Namikaze Minato. She consequently discovered that he was the nicest person in the whole world. He thought  _ she _ was a badass and didn’t ever even try to help her fight because he knew she would destroy anyone who started it with her in the first place, and that he was convinced her hair was  _ beautiful _ .

Namikaze Minato, she decided, was alright. Maybe they could even be friends. That sounded nice.

* * *

When Uzumaki Kushina was fourteen, she decided to woman up and tell her best friend Minato—because he’d said that he was happy for her to call him by his given name without any honorifics, but only if she  _ wanted _ to (which she  _ did _ )—that she was the jinchuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune.

He blinked at her and scrunched up his face the way he always did when he was confused by something and told her  _ ‘okay,’ _ like it was a question and asked her why she was so worried about it.

Nothing changed, and Kushina was pretty damn sure that was a miracle.

* * *

When Uzumaki Kushina was still fourteen, Minato found her putting some experimental seals together while she was bored waiting for him to show up to their daily spar. Apparently, he  _ hadn’t _ known she could do fuuinjutsu pretty well and was practically offended that she’d hidden it from him. She told him that he was stupid if he  _ really _ thought she’d ever actually kept it a secret.

He demanded she teach him everything she knew about fuuinjutsu.

She demanded they get on with their spar and that he regularly bought the first round of Ichiraku Ramen after their training for the foreseeable future, and only  _ then _ would she teach him everything she knew about fuuinjutsu.

When he shook on it without any hesitation whatsoever, she realised she could have asked him to buy the first  _ three _ rounds of Ichiraku’s and he still probably would have said yes.

* * *

When Uzumaki Kushina was fifteen, she realised that she had accidentally made  _ way _ more friends than just Minato and that some of them were actually  _ girls.  _ Girls who  _ wanted _ to hang out with her and try new tea shops that she had never heard about and go clothes shopping and do  _ even more _ things. With  _ her _ .  _ All of the time. _

When she went to Minato about this in a big ramble of nerves and excitement and confusion, he had his big dopey grin on and told her she was silly for ever thinking that people  _ wouldn’t _ want to be her best friend. That all kinds of people already loved her, and then he got all kinds of dramatic and said he didn’t want to share her with other people, but so long as they made her happy he could be okay with her having more best friends.

Something seemed up with him and how he said ‘people loved her’ and he ‘didn’t want to share,’ but she was running late to her girl-friends’ training anyways so she decided she’d look into it later.

Her best friend was such a weirdo.

* * *

When Uzumaki Kushina was  _ still _ fifteen, Uzushiogakure, her  _ home _ , fell.

Minato found her soon after the news was released, curled up on her bed sobbing and screaming in mourning for her people and island she would never see again.

He held her through the night and cried with her, keeping watch for her when she fell asleep.

The next day he helped her compile all of her clan’s scrolls she had and record everything she could remember that she didn’t already have a copy of. They spent a week working together to write down every bit of information she could remember, Minato only writing when her hands were too cramped and aching. Otherwise, he took care of meals and making sure she took the minimal amount of time to care for herself.

She was pretty sure she wouldn’t have made it out half as well of the shock and mourning if Minato hadn’t been by her side the way he had.

* * *

  
  


When Uzumaki Kushina was  _ only barely still _ fifteen when her kunoichi friends listened to her ramble about Minato during a training session break. Once she had finished, they’d all sat down and tried to explain to her that the feelings she had  _ clearly _ been having about Minato for a while were what they called a  _ crush. _ Because she was falling in love with him. Apparently.

She told them off for teasing her about silly things, but the more she thought about it in the weeks later, the more she realised that actually? Maybe she  _ did _ like her favourite dork a little bit more than she liked all of her other friends.

What she didn’t know was what she was supposed to  _ do _ with that information now that she had it. Kushina made a mental note to ask her fellow kunoichi during their next get together. But secretly. If Minato found out before she knew what to say or do about it, she would have to do something drastic like run away and become a missing-nin.

* * *

  
  


When Uzumaki Kushina was sixteen, she watched Minato put the finishing touches on the teleportation seal they had been working on and had celebrated with him when it  _ worked _ . She checked over the seal for him the day after when he asked and told her he’d added a clause to destroy only the paper seal on his command so that no one could steal his newly invented fuuinjutsu. It all added up, and she commended him on how clever it was to add that in, as well as how seamlessly he had attached it to the seal itself.

She brought out the set of custom kunai she had gotten for him as a congratulatory gift and told him to use these to test it. 

The seals with the chakra retaining kunai  _ worked, _ and they shrieked with glee as Minato bounced from seal to seal without issue, stopping only for a moment to test the self-destruction function. They watched the one seal he chose to destroy remotely burn itself without smoke or any ash remaining and cheered again when it didn’t even singe the kunai.

* * *

  
  


When Uzumaki Kushina was  _ still _ sixteen, she found out Minato liked her  _ back _ and had for  _ over a year. _ She punched him in the gut for being an idiot worrying about ruining their friendship or something silly like that and hugged him tightly enough immediately after she feared she might have hurt him. When she looked him in the eye one she let him go she realised he’d been hurting himself trying to pretend he wasn’t falling in love with her.

She promised herself she would do better to be aware of what Minato tried to hide from her in the future so she could show him that loving her didn’t mean hurting himself.

* * *

  
  


When Uzumaki Kushina was seventeen, she watched Minato climb into her room through her window with amusement, already ranting about something or other while still clearly in his ANBU gear. Her amusement died abruptly as she figured out what exactly it was her boyfriend was fuming over. In seconds she started plotting how exactly she would approach the issue and gather intelligence to take the blame so far away from Minato they’d never suspect he was the original leak.

She was going to demand the ANBU operatives had the support they needed, they worked directly for the Hokage, and as human beings alone they deserved as much.  Hiruzen Sarutobi and his thrice-damned friend Danzo were going to get their acts together or suffer the full force of her wrath.

* * *

  
  


When Uzumaki Kushina was eighteen, she won. The sandaime had meekly implemented the changes she had pushed for by the time she was done with him, and Danzo Shimura had significantly less power and support from shinobi and civilians alike.

Over the next few months she frequently found gift baskets with coded thank you notes mentioning the external support, rehabilitation, and immediate retirement upon request resources and non-negotiable protocols for all ANBU operatives. Throughout the rest of her life, Kushina would receive subtle nods in passing, small gifts and thank you cards, with quiet mentions of the unanimously dubbed Kushina Relief Protocols.

Without knowing it, Kushina had gained the undying loyalty of every ANBU operative and—in ways she would never truly understand in her life—had changed the world.

* * *

  
  


When Uzumaki Kushina was nineteen, the world went to war just outside of Konoha, and she was kept as far away as possible from it as soon as the news hit. She heard whispers of her being some kind of secret weapon and despaired, knowing she would become a significant part of this war- if she wasn’t already.

She wished she could have been a jounin sensei instead.

* * *

  
  


When Uzumaki Kushina was  _ still _ nineteen, she decided she was sick of torturing the second soul housed in her body and chose to make and take all the time she could to negotiate a friendship out of the fox. It was by no means an easy endeavour, and more often than not, they got in shouting matches which ended with them storming off to ignore each other again for the next few hours or days.

Until in the middle of one of their shouting matches, the grouchy fox asked her  _ why the hell do you think I’m ever going to fall for your ‘change of heart’ bullshit? _ She was startled into silence, which shocked him right back into silence too.

_ Because,  _ she had told him levelly,  _ it’s not bullshit, and I know something of what it’s like to be shoved in a cage I didn’t want to be in and used like some tool without any regard to my opinions and feelings. And you know what? I’m really fucking sick of it, dettebane! _

They had far less shouting matches after that.

* * *

  
  


When Uzumaki Kushina was a week into being twenty years old, she had seen the war in person and hated it for what it made her into and what it turned everyone else into as well. (Though she was grateful she and her fox had generally sorted their issues out, and were working together on a better seal to make their shared space less like a nasty prison looking and feeling place.)

So she bought a ring and decided she would love more fiercely than ever and show the world that it was really something stupid if it thought it could beat her down enough to stop her winning the war with love.

The look on Minato’s face when she proposed was priceless and adorable, but when he pulled out his  _ own _ box from the sneaky seal lining his hitai-ate and showed it to her, she lost her mind cackling at the hilarity of it all. Then gave herself whiplash wondering just how long her boyfriend had been sitting on his ass with that ring. He made her a deal she couldn’t refuse when she’d asked and admired the new ring on her finger right up until she waited, leaning against her still closed door, to hear the story of how he’d gotten it almost a year ago but couldn’t find the right time with the war on and his genin kids running him ragged some days.

She laughed hard enough she lost her breath, because that was just so  _ him _ , and then kissed him like he was the only air she was willing to breathe anymore.

Kushina decided she rather liked it when Minato’s ears went pink after calling him future-husband. She would be sure to do it more often until the day she could simply call him  _ husband _ .

* * *

  
  


When Uzumaki Kushina was  _ still _ twenty, she started tag-teaming the war with Minato and they  _ crushed it _ to the point their bingo book descriptions had upgraded to  _ ‘flee on sight’ _ which she lived for.

The Kyuubi no Kitsune—who she had taken to calling  _ Kitsune-ji _ since the time she asked if he had a name during a shouting match and he refused to give her one out of spite; never one to be shown up, Kushina matched that spite by calling him uncle—was much amused by the reputation they had gained that matched his own before the jinchuriki seal had trapped him.

He didn’t say as much, but she knew he was proud of her accomplishments. Maybe something akin to how her family would have been.

She liked that idea, and even though she never said as much, she was pretty sure her Kitsune-ji liked it a little bit too.

* * *

  
  


When Uzumaki Kushina was twenty-one, she and  _ Kitsune-ji _ had a breakthrough on the new jinchuriki seal and were able to write it out to near completion. The idea written in laws and clauses within the seal was that the next jinchuriki would be able to interact with her Kitsune-ji without the prisoner and warden context, making both souls equal in status and capable of negotiating peacefully and coexisting. The recently added a clause for intentional chakra exchange in a lending-borrowing format. The catch was they needed to make it function according to each party’s will, which was a tricky bit of script to fit in the required section. But they had done it, and so far the developing seal appeared to be stable with room for a few more ideas from their list to be included.

When she was jerked out of the meditative state which allowed her to hang out with Kitsune-ji, sounds of not so distant explosions and clashing in the middle of the night struck her as entirely wrong from her flat. She registered the presence of two of her future-husband’s chunin, who told her their other team member was nowhere to be found.

When her search went from hours to days, from days to the second that Minato got back, and more with him by her side, she cursed her failure to protect one of Minato’s precious chunin kids.

* * *

  
  


When Uzumaki Kushina was  _ still _ twenty-one, the war ended. The war ended and she was getting  _ married  _ come hell or high water. They knew it, and not long later their friends and Minato’s sisters knew it too. She just about cried when everyone they’d told started demanding they help in whatever way they could.

Minato’s sisters outright kidnapped her from right under his arm to go dress shopping. She hadn’t felt so exhausted after a shopping trip in years, but she walked out of it elated regardless and loving what she had been able to find.

Her future-husband and future-sisters-in-law invited her along to visit their parents’ graves and tell them the good news. She thought briefly on her own parents and whether or not they got their own graves. Hopefully one day she would be able to visit and find out.

* * *

  
  


When Uzumaki Kushina was twenty-two, the sandaime summoned them both to his office and grilled them over whether or not they still wanted his position.

It was actually something the two of them had both discussed at length, so her answer was easy. She wanted to be Hokage, yes. There were things she wanted to change and people she wanted to serve and protect. But if it was a question of her or Minato?

She wanted to be a mother. Minato would listen to her ideas and council, she trusted him to do that. They were the best team the world had ever seen! So he could  _ officially _ take the hat.

She would be a mother. One day.

* * *

  
  


When Uzumaki Kushina was twenty-three, she woke up one day to her kunoichi friends and Minato’s sisters bustling around her flat, getting everything in order for her wedding. The fussing was sweet and reminded her of when she helped some of her aunts back in Uzushio get ready for their weddings when she was young.

When she saw Minato all dressed up and waiting for her, she felt like the luckiest woman in the world and had to tease him on principle when she finally stood across from him. With a sly wink, she whispered,  _ well hey there, handsome. You sure clean up nice, dettebane! _

His face was so red it rivalled her hair, but his smile had something inside her melt into a soft gooey mush. Kitsune-ji complained that they were going to make him sick, but she could tell that he didn’t mean a word of it.

* * *

  
  


When Uzumaki Kushina was  _ still  _ twenty-three, her husband became the Hokage, officially, fulfilling a childhood dream for the both of them. He took the office and their community by storm, fixing up the academy and building support systems for  _ every _ ninja to fall back on, taking her advice and ideas forward with him, and evolving the ANBU program based on what needs were yet to be addressed.

In the time she had between counselling her husband, going on missions, and fixing up their house, Kushina finished the final draft of the new and improved jinchuriki seal. It would still need a look over from Minato, he wasn’t half bad at fuuinjutsu these days, and it would be appropriate if the other participant in building this seal was the third and final set of eyes.

Once she was sure it had been properly looked over from every angle, Kushina was going to get started painting and setting up the nursery room.

* * *

  
  


When Uzumaki Kushina was twenty-four, it took everything she had not to run home from the hospital, screaming in elation. When she  _ did _ get home, she threw the door open and rushed up to Minato and told him the news. He stared at her for a moment before his mouth went slack and he picked her up and swung her around wearing his most excited and giddy grin.

_ I’m going to be a dad. _

_ I’m going to be a mother, dettebane! _

_ I’m going to be a father! _

_ We’re going to be parents! _

* * *

  
  


When Uzumaki Kushina was  _ still  _ twenty-four, there were some preparations to be made and there was no way in hell she was going to skimp out. They officially adopted cute little Kakashi—the entire process expedited by the fact her husband was the Hokage—and gave him the room in their house they’d been setting up for him since they bought it. They made sure Rin knew she was always welcome and that they would have adopted her too, but were pretty sure her parents would have fought them for her, which was way too much drama since Kakashi was enough of a drama queen for the lot of them.

Kakashi resented the teasing, but mostly because they were right and he hated it.

Minato convinced her to let him name Jiraiya as their baby’s godfather, not that it was hard for him to do. But she made sure the sanin knew that if something happened to her and her husband and her kids were left without them, that Jiraiya’d better step up or he would suffer her wrath. 

She and Minato found a place outside of the village that they made into a suitable shelter where she could give birth, and ‘conscripted’ one of Kushina’s kunoichi friends who had retired early in her career to become a midwife who would meet them at the highly classified location when she went into labour. (Actually, Kushina was surprised when her old friend practically demanded to be her midwife. Not that she complained about it, she trusted her with her life after time together on the field and was happy to comply with her demands.)

When the date read a month and a half away from October tenth, Kushina had the distinct, sinking feeling that something was going to go very wrong when her baby (tentatively named Naruto) would be born. She brought it up with Minato, who trusted her intuition without question and asked what he could do to help. Together they wrote letters, just in case, to their child. Together they slowly made copies of all of the Uzumaki scrolls she had, of Minato’s fuuinjutsu scrolls and failed attempts at his Flying Thunder God Technique seal (she still thought the name was ridiculous), and any other knowledge they would hope to pass on. They sealed everything up in a blood locked scroll which they gave to Kakashi, with instructions of what to do with it should something happen to them.

_ We are ninja, not irrational, _ they told him.  _ But we’re still hoping for the best. _

A week away from the due date, Kushina was ready for this baby to be  _ out _ of her already, and the queasy feeling that something wasn’t quite right haunted her constantly. When Kitsune-ji pulled her out a nightmare and into the shared seal space, she walked straight through the bars separating them and cried against the old fox’s soft fur. In what she gathered was an attempt to comfort her, Kitsune-ji explained to her what  _ he _ would be doing to keep the seal intact from his side while she went into labour. Which, surprisingly enough, did help her feel a little better. Especially when he shifted and curled a few of his tails around her and grumbled something about keeping a lookout for nightmares. 

(When she told Minato about the event, he’d looked her in the eye and told her that he was alright with being the second husband, so long as she wasn’t about to divorce him. She laughed so hard she got hiccups, which hurt, but she loved her goofball husband who tried his best to make her laugh when all she felt she could do was worry and panic.)

Naruto was born late in the night and it was the hardest thing Kushina had ever done. The moment she laid eyes on her baby boy, she immediately knew it was also the best one too. He was so  _ small _ . Her baby had tiny hands and tiny feet and even tinier fingers and toes. The little tufts of hair on his head, while still a little messy, were sure to be just as bright as his dad’s. Kushina wondered if his eyes would be like hers or Minato’s. Naruto was  _ perfect _ and she was so happy, despite her exhaustion. Holding him was like a dream come true.

Then that dream fractured when she felt Kitsune-ji’s chakra abruptly become aggressive with a bitter tang she  _ knew _ wasn’t natural. Without any time to react, the jinchuriki seal shattered and Kitsune-ji was released with the  _ wrong coloured eyes _ . Only briefly out of the corner of her eye did she see a figure in a mask she didn’t recognise, and then they were gone. Minato looked back at her in anguish for just a moment, before he left to confront whoever that was and hopefully save the village.

With tears in her eyes and great effort on her part, Kushina stood up, dressed as quickly as she could, and made her way carefully out of the stone building with her perfect, newborn Naruto swaddled in her arms.

* * *

  
  


When Uzumaki Kushina was only twenty-four, she died with her husband, sealing her mind-warped Kitsune-ji into her son, using the seal the three of them had created what felt like years ago.

Kushina was no stranger to the world falling apart around her, but this breaking hurt her soul with only one small comfort.

Their son Uzumaki Naruto was going to survive, and he wouldn’t be alone like she had been- even if she couldn’t be there for him physically herself. He would have siblings, unofficial aunts and uncles, and a godfather.

Uzumaki Kushina would die, miserable she wouldn’t get the chance to watch her baby grow at her side but relieved he wouldn’t be forgotten or left alone without his heritage.

And so she did.

And the ANBU never forgot.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! If you have any questions or feelings about the fic you'd like to get off your chest (nice and constructively) please feel free to leave a comment! I am most curious what you each think and subsequently have to say about it.
> 
> Stay safe and keep your wits about you out there!
> 
> With love,  
> pS


End file.
